Post Prayer Meeting Speech by Mahatma Gandhi
Date: 1947-06-11
Previous Speech: 1947-06-10
Next Speech: 1947-06-12
Location: New Delhi
Annotation from Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi
CWMG, Volume 88, No. 105, Page 132

BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

Although I have spoken to you about the impending division of Bengal, nevertheless I wish to speak to you about it again a third time. I have just received a letter.¹ It is full of anger. As I have told you, anger is a kind of madness. The man who is a prey to anger loses all discrimination. The letter I received shows such anger.

The writer says that I have caused great harm to Bengalis. In what way have I caused harm to Bengalis? I have said that I do not want that Bengal should be vivisected. It is true that I do not want that. If a just scheme were offered to us I would say that a Bengali is above all a Bengali, be he Hindu or Muslim or Christian. If he wants to uphold his mother tongue, uphold his country, who can interfere? I wish to tell you that even the Congress cannot interfere, nor can the League. It is very clear that if Bengal could remain united it would be a very good thing. But how is that to be? That is the question. If we wish to achieve something good but choose a method which is crooked we shall not reach our goal. If you adopt a wrong path and want to go east you will end up by arriving in the west. We must therefore not choose a wrong path. We should take the right path. That is what I have been saying. But people get angry. I want to tell you that I stick to what I have been saying. I stand by what is right. If someone does not have right on his side, whether he is my brother or my son, I do not care. I therefore tell the Bengalis that if Bengal is to be divided it will be through their own decision and if Bengal is to remain united it will also be through them. So far nothing has happened. This much for Bengal.

But I have other matters brought to my attention, too. Today some friends from Campbellpur came to see me. They said that they were so far living happily there. They did not run away. But what were they to do? They are scared about what their plight would be in Pakistan and Campbellpur certainly would be included in Pakistan. I told them that whatever the situation might be in Pakistan they were after all living in India. If the map of India is divided in two, how can it affect them? I said, “You are brave people. You don’t fear anyone except God. Anyone who fears God need fear no one else in the world. I therefore cannot advise you to leave Campbellpur.” They wanted to know how they could defend themselves if they remained there. I said I had told the Hindus in Noakhali that they were not to move out from where they were. They wanted weapons. But what could they be doing with the weapons? The Government had the weapons and if the Government could not protect them, they being in a minority, then the Government was incompetent. Such a Government should go and I told them to force such a Government to go. If a few Muslims are left behind here, are they to be slaughtered and would the Government merely watch? Then the Government no longer remains a Government. It becomes a tyranny. And why should we live under a tyranny? We have been fighting the British for so many years. Must we now fall from the frying pan into the fire? Is it for this that we have undergone so much suffering, made so much noise and resorted to satyagraha and non-co-operation?

That will not be right. I said the same thing to the Muslims of Bihar. They said that I could talk in that way because I was a Mahatma, but they were traders and had businesses and families and children to look after. I must show them a way. I said I was helpless. I could not change now in my old age.

What were they to say? They were good people and I was busy. I told them to go saying I could only advise them to be brave. I do not indulge in tall talk. Man is born to be brave. Man is not born to become cowardly or to become scared. Man is a part of God. He has in him the divine spark. I have not heard that a cow or a bullock or a horse partakes of the divine spark. It is true that as all creatures are creatures of God we are more or less alike. But the difference between man and other creatures is that we do not say of the latter, as we can about men, that they have in them the divine spark. Then if we have the divine spark, is it so that we may become frightened of each other or is it so that we may love each other? So I tried to explain things to them. But how were they to understand?

Mr. Jinnah is doing something very big. Nobody had ever dreamt that in this day and age Pakistan would become a possibility. But today Pakistan is a reality. True, it has not yet come into being. But surely by the 15th of August it will be formed. When I think over the matter I tell myself that I should not grieve over it. The Congress says there was no alternative to division. Jinnah says that he will not rest till India is divided. So let there be division. But shall I throw up my hands and accept this division? I say that nobody can cut me into pieces. Therefore nobody can cut India into pieces. This is mere talk. I tell you that if you become truthful, then whether it is Pakistan or India or whatever other name you may choose, the task will be the same. Who can tear asunder that which God has created one? But I can ask Mr. Jinnah what he intends to do with regard to those people. It is already agreed what parts are to be included in Pakistan. Campbellpur is so included. It cannot be shifted. What are the people there to do? Should they flee? Does he want that they should continue to live there? He says that all will get justice; that in Pakistan the same standard will apply to all and no one will be discriminated against merely on the ground that he is a Hindu or a Christian. He says that all will get the same justice.

Today my tongue, my words, have lost their power. But he still has that power. He is the ruler of Pakistan and nobody can deny it. So I ask the ruler of Pakistan, what he intends doing. He should make his intentions public. Let me now go a little further. Badshah Khan is a friend. Badshah Khan can go somewhere else. He can stay with Maulana Azad. He has a beautiful bungalow. He can eat there what he wants. He can put up with Jawaharlal. He has a huge mansion. It is not like my poor hut. And what would I offer him to eat? I cannot even provide meat. He agrees to take whatever I eat, cereals, a little fruit, and that is all. But he is happy with it and thus he is my friend. He is a fakir. Dr. Khan Saheb is his brother. Dr. Khan Saheb can do nothing without Badshah Khan’s help. Badshah Khan is a fakir. That is why he is “Badshah” or king. He has become a king not through the sword but through love, through service. When I go there I never hear him called by any other name. It is here that he is called the Frontier Gandhi. There they do not even know Gandhi, to say nothing of Frontier Gandhi.

So Badshah Khan and others decided that there ought to be a referendum. Tempers have not yet cooled, for Pathans are hot-blooded. What will be gained by a referendum? They will not all of them say that they want Pakistan or that they want Hindustan. Then there will be division among the Pathans. I should like to ask the leader of Pakistan if he wants a division among the Pathans. And will he compel one of the parts? Would it not be better for him instead to explain what Pakistan is?

Pakistan has been granted. The Congress has agreed, willingly or unwillingly. Now Punjab is to be divided, Bengal is to be divided. I tell you that it is in the hands of the leader of Pakistan to stop the division of the Punjab and Bengal. Why does he not say ’I now have Pakistan. Why do you fear? We have fought. Let us forget who has been or has not been at fault. I have just signed that declaration with Gandhi that we shall not resort to the sword to gain political ends. We shall try to gain those ends by argument. Let us then argue. I will not resort to a referendum.’ If Jinnah says that he will welcome all the Pathans, those who consider him their enemy and those whom he considers his enemies —the Khudai Khidmatgars, the Khan Brothers, the Hindus, the Sikhs, the Parsis and Christians — he will welcome all, then I will say that you lose nothing by remaining in Pakistan. Why should he not say this much? Why should he not say what shape Pakistan is going to take? If he says this everyone will be happy.

Pakistan is not something imaginary. India is not something imaginary. I should ask the Congress also to explain. No poison must be spread. If poison continues to be spread, what will be the result? Then the Pakistan that has been formed will be a bad thing. The English will have gone, leaving the Indians, both Hindus and Muslims, to abuse them.

Pakistan was not inevitable. But when they saw that Hindus and Muslims could not make up their minds to work together in the Constituent Assembly, what could they do? Then they talked with both the parties and both agreed on Hindustan and Pakistan being separate entities. I am not concerned with what name you give it. But it should be done properly. If it is not done properly the poison will remain. I am sorry that Mountbatten has come today. He has not come with any wicked intention. But I have a fear that through him harm will come. Unless of course he stops doing what he must do, unless he pleads with me, pleads with the Congress, pleads with Mr. Jinnah, pleads with you and tries to satisfy everyone. But in this world nobody can please everybody. He who tries to please everybody always fails. This is the law of God. It is the experience of the whole world. So he cannot expect to please all. I would say that if the Congress is erring he should take it to task. He should say, ’I have come here. I am an officer of the Navy and I like to talk frankly.’ He should say that what we do is not right, what the Congress does is not right. But why should we bother him? After all his dharma is different from ours. But why should brother fight against brother? Why now? When there was time we fought. We shed blood. What we were fighting for, we got.

I notice that Ibn Saud has sent a telegram to the Qaide-Azam. He says in it that he is not happy over what has happened. But he hopes that there will be peace in the world. The Qaid-e-Azam has said in reply that he also wants peace. But where is peace to come from? There is no peace in India today and if Hindus and Muslims continue to fight as enemies, how can there be peace? I shall say that all the telegrams addressed to me, all the anger directed at me, are futile. I say simply, where there is truth there is God. Where there is non-violence, there is God. Where these are not, there is nothing.

I shall only say that Mr. Jinnah carries a great responsibility. He has to reassure the world. At any rate, he has to reassure those who are in Pakistan and those whom he wants to be in Pakistan. He has to draw them to him. If he cannot do so it is bad for India and it is bad for Pakistan. It is bad for the Hindus and for the Muslims. I cannot wish anyone ill. My sole prayer is that we may do only what is right.

[From Hindi]
Courtesy: All-India Radio

Notes

• 1. From H. S. Suhrawardy; vide the following item.

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